Silurian sea spider preserved by volcanic eruption, according to a report in BBC News Online and ScienceNOW 21 October 2004. Sea spiders are delicate creatures with long thin legs that are rarely fossilised. Oxford University Palaeontologist Derek Siveter and colleagues have found the oldest most complete fossil sea spider preserved in volcanic rock in Hertfordshire, England dated as 425 million years old. They were unable to extract the fossil from the rock so they took thin slices of the rock and photographed them, and then used a computer imaging process to build a three dimensional image of the fossil. After studying this they concluded that the fossil “had all the hallmarks of current-day sea spiders”, and sea spiders must have evolved as a distinct group of animals about 450 million years ago.

Editorial Comment: This fossil provides no evidence that sea spiders evolved 450 million years ago or at any other time. If the oldest sea spider is the same as living sea spiders then they have not evolved. They have reproduced their own kind, just as Genesis say they were created to do. (Ref. sea spiders, fossils, after their kind)